Swiss brand says Hoang Sa, Truong Sa ‘belong to Vietnam’ on watches

A ceremony was held at Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday to introduce the watches.

Candino has finished making 1,888 such watches that are simply but tastefully designed and boast the red Vietnamese flag right in the 12 o’clock position, which is indicative of the Southeast Asian country’s solemnity and eternity.

On the clock face are words that read “Hoang Sa & Truong Sa belong to Vietnam.”

The watch back has an intricately carved relief of the Vietnamese map along with the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos and Phu Quoc Island.

The Candino Swiss watches say "Hoang Sa & Truong Sa belong to Vietnam"
on their clock faces. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Hoang Sa is an island district under the administration of the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang while Truong Sa is also an island district administered by the south-central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa.

Phu Quoc is Vietnam’s largest island, managed by the southern province of Kien Giang.

Out of the 1,888 watches, those numbered from 389 to 1,888 (1,500 items) are designed for men, whereas the remaining are for women.

Bui Tan Minh, a 35-year-old Vietnamese businessman, and his associates have nurtured the idea of making the watches since 2012.

Minh is the director of Hai Minh Co., which distributes top-notch watches made by world-class brands in Vietnam.

He said it took quite a while to convince the Swiss brand to produce the special watches.

“Our Swiss partners really adore Vietnam and appreciate the country’s right cause in safeguarding its sovereignty over the archipelagos. Candino finally decided to make the special edition,” Minh added.

Minh and his associates came up with nearly 30 designs before deciding on the current one thanks to its simple, tasteful design and modest yet resolute confirmation of the Southeast Asian country’s sovereignty.

Almost two years after concocting the plan, the special watch version made it to Vietnam earlier this month.

Minh insisted his Swiss partners produce exactly 1,888 watches, explaining that the year 1888 was when “moc ban” were completed by the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945).

“Moc ban” is a Vietnamese term referring to print woodblocks inscribed with words in Han and Nom – ancient Chinese script and Vietnamese hieroglyph.

The woodblocks feature Vietnam’s social norms, laws, and the kings’ merits and historic events.

They authentically depict the activity of the Nguyen Dynasty’s troops in Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, which serves as solid, irrefutable evidence of Vietnam’s sovereignty over the two groups of islands.

In 2009 “moc ban” were the country’s first archive to earn the UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program, an international initiative launched to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, the ravages of time and climatic conditions, and willful and deliberate destruction.

Hai Minh Co. previously worked with Candino to manufacture 1,000 watches exclusively for Vietnam to commemorate the 1,000th birthday of Thang Long-Hanoi in 2010.

The Vietnamese flag is seen in the prominent 12 o'clock position. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Minh also cooperated with the Swiss brand to make watches for the Vietnamese market to celebrate 40 years of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Switzerland in 2011.

The latest watches Candino made for this market include designs for both men and women while such limited editions typically come in only one design in other countries.

During the Saturday ceremony, Minh handed over a total of VND50 million (US$2,330) to the funds run by the Ho Chi Minh City Fatherland Front and Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper to support Vietnamese soldiers in their course of protecting the country’s sovereignty over its seas and islands.

Founded in Switzerland in 1947, Candino is one of the leading and most creative brand-name watches in the European country, Europa Star, a provider of international watch industry news and information, says on its website.

The brand was integrated into the Festina Group in January 2002.

The words on the clock face which read "Hoang Sa & Truong Sa belong to Vietnam." Photo: Tuoi Tre

The watch back has an intricately carved relief of the Vietnamese map along with the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa
archipelagos and Phu Quoc Island. Photo: Tuoi Tre